Editorial

Time To Join Ranks Behind Pres. Bush

After a long, gruelling campaign in which America’s voters heard both presidential candidates state their opinions on any and every issue which had significant meaning for some portion of the electorate, the voters spoke clearly and distinctly last Tuesday, stating their preference for President George W. Bush and rejecting challenger U.S. Senator John Kerry.

We have survived the fierce bickering and fighting, which served a helpful purpose—clarifying opposing philosophies, ideas and positions. It is now time to set aside our differences and move forward with conducting our nation’s business.

But we must not lose sight of the differences that were presented by Senator Kerry and President Bush. In voting to give President Bush another four years in the White House, the electorate indicated that it embraced his ideas. Now we should not blur the differences, but get behind the president and his proposals.

As the winning candidate, Bush has a mandate to move forward and implement the vision which he enunciated during the campaign. He is entitled to our support and encouragement as he embarks on another four-year term with ideas and proposals designed to make life better for all of us.

The president has reached out to us and stands ready “to set the direction of our nation for the next four years,” as he said in his news conference in Washington last Thursday. He stands ready to bring people together by presenting an agenda that everybody understands and will work with people to achieve the agenda.

President Bush pointed to several areas where Republicans and Democrats share common ground, for instance, foreign policy. The president declared: “There is a common ground to be had when it comes to a foreign policy that says the most important objective is to protect the American people and spread freedom and democracy.”

The Gazette agrees wholeheartedly with the president’s statements. We urge our readers to join us in this support. There is a time to fight tooth and nail in espousing our differences, but after such a decisive election which gave the president a mandate to lead us, the time of reconciliation is at hand. Now is the time to stand with the president to make our nation the best and strongest it can be.